Galactic barrier
You may also be looking for the Great Barrier. The galactic barrier is an energy field composed of negative energy surrounding the rim of the Milky Way Galaxy. It appears as a purple/pink band of energy. No form of transmission can penetrate the barrier. ( ) Warp travel through the barrier causes extreme sensory distortions. ( ) The barrier has been encountered on several occasions by Earth and Starfleet vessels. The first encounter involving an Earth vessel occurred in 2065 with the . The ship was swept into the barrier by a magnetic storm. Subsequent events resulted in the destruction of the Valiant and the loss of all hands, leaving the barrier's formal discovery to wait two hundred more years. In 2265, the under the command of Captain Kirk discovered the recorder-marker ejected from the Valiant. Decoding its message, they retraced the Valiant s path, being almost destroyed in the process. At that time the barrier did not register at all on the Enterprise s sensors, although the ship's deflectors did react to it. Entering the barrier was extremely hazardous. Shields could not block all the energies of the barrier; the leakage was sufficient to heat up the hull to over 2,000 degrees, ( ) damage several systems and disable the warp drive of the Enterprise. Also passing the shields and hull were strange electric shocks to the nervous systems of the human crew members with high esper ratings. In most cases this caused death from brain damage. Individuals with the highest ESP ratings such as Dr. Elizabeth Dehner's 089 and Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell's 091 survived the shock and were altered as a result. They developed a multitude of psionic powers at a geometric rate. They began to view their former friends and shipmates as lower lifeforms. This transformation is known to have happened at least three times, with the best known example being Mitchell. ( ) In 2268, Kelvans from the Andromeda Galaxy entered the Milky Way Galaxy through the barrier. Their advanced multigenerational ships were damaged by the barrier and subsequently destroyed. The Kelvan survivors of one ship required a new vessel for the journey home. They hijacked the USS Enterprise and refitted it to survive the barrier and the intergalactic journey. Presumably, due to improvements in sensor technology, this time the Enterprise s sensors registered the barrier as negative energy, but of such magnitude that all instruments were off the dials. The option to flood the Enterprise s warp nacelles with positive energy through control valves was available to Kirk, but not taken, during the passage through the barrier. Combination of that positive energy and the negative energy of the barrier would have destroyed the ship. ( ) Later that year, the Enterprise left the Milky Way Galaxy when Larry Marvick, driven mad by the sight of Medusan Ambassador Kollos, sought to escape his tormenting visions. During that excursion the ship was stranded inside a space-time void deep within the barrier. No sensor data or reference points were available to exit the void in the right direction. Fortunately Kollos was able to help pilot the ship out. ( ) In the latter two occasions no one was affected in the same manner as Mitchell was just three years earlier. Appendices Background It is not explained why the Enterprise could not simply go above or below the barrier, as the visual effects would seem to indicate is a possibility. One explanation is that, just as the barrier itself wasn't visible until the Enterprise was close enough, the top and bottom of the barrier are still too far away to be seen in any of the on-screen shots. This would be especially true of the top and bottom of the galaxy, which would still be many light years away. The composition of the barrier is a bit controversial; as it was initially totally unknown. Negative (as in having no detectable) energy, radiation and density, but later on in it is directly and clearly stated to be in fact negative energy; not just negative (in) energy. If it wasn't negative energy, the plan to vent positive energy as a means of destroying the ship inside the barrier would make no sense. Presumably, improvements in shielding technology prevented a repeat of the esper incidents later on after . Another possibility is that the ESP effect is not widespread along the entire barrier. Yet another alternative is that the ships passed the barrier later on at such a high warp velocity that the effect was averted; the Enterprise entered the barrier in 2265 at the speed of only warp 1 and it can be assumed that the old Valiant wasn't much faster than that. In Star Trek: Star Charts the barrier is depicted as an envelope that surrounds the entire galactic disc, joining up with the Great Barrier in the center. It's not situated at the rim as directly stated on screen in , but only thickest at the rim; over 10,000 light years thick, starting out from a distance of 40,000 light years from the center of the galaxy outward. Closer to UFP's neighborhood of the galaxy the barrier thins down to a thousand or so light years above and below. Even a large number of visible stars in the outer parts of the galactic disc are situated inside the barrier in the Star Trek: Star Charts cross-sectional view of the galaxy. Furthermore the Valiant, the Enterprise, the Kelvans etc. didn't exit, enter or try to exit the galaxy throught the rim, but from the closer and thinner above and below parts of the barrier. If this were true it would go against all the visual evidence presented in the episodes. Star Trek: Star Charts seems to contradict itself, because started the journey home from a distance of approximately 50,000 light years from the galactic center. This would have placed it well inside the barrier. Star Trek: Star Charts also states that the neurogenic effects of the barrier are unpredictable. :While the Star Trek: Star Charts is not canon, it is a Memory Alpha permitted resource. Apocrypha Greg Cox's Star Trek: The Next Generation - Q Continuum novels state that the galactic barrier was in fact created by the Q Continuum as a method of preventing the powerful being known only as 0 from returning to the Milky Way Galaxy, from which he was banished for his destruction of the Tkon Empire. These novels also explain that the telepathic powers that occur as a side effect of exposure to the barrier in telepaths are caused by the power of the Q that exist in the barrier, while those who develop a god complex are 'infected' by the presence of 0, who constantly attempts to affect beings on the other side to give himself access to the galaxy once again. During an attack by the Calamarain, the was forced to hide in the barrier, but Lieutenant Reginald Barclay managed to come up with the idea of using the bio-neural gel packs to absorb the psychic energy from the barrier to enhance their shields, providing some improved protection from the barrier's psychic influence. As the Enterprise''departed the barrier, Betazoid scientist Lem Faal managed to briefly open an artificial wormhole leading to the other side, but as this resulted in 0 briefly returning to our galaxy and only being defeated by the alliance of Q and the Calamarain, it is unlikely that the Federation will ever use this technology to begin exploration in other galaxies at the present time. In Q-Squared, a disembodied Q is the one who takes over Dr. Elizabeth Dehner and Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell. In the Stargazer series of books, a member of the Nyuad race is killed after becoming god-like in power from exposure to the barrier. However, he remains an energy life form and returns to the barrier. Related topics * ''Beyond the Galactic Edge, Humanity's Quest for Infinity Category:Regions de:Galaktische Barriere fr:Barrière galactique nl:Galactische barrière